Yesterday I went to the Untethered show at Eyebeam with Christopher and my dad. I think this is the fourth show I’ve seen at Eyebeam, and it probably would have been the most successful if everything had been working. A number of the pieces that seemed like you should be able to interact with them weren’t responding, either because a) they didn’t seem to be powered (Kelly Dobson’s pieces– weleaned in close and growled at Blendie and hummed at Toastie, but nothing seemed to happen.) or b) they were frozen (most of Hans-Christoph Steiner’s pieces). One of the most engaging pieces was also one of the simplest: Nothing in It by JooYoun Paek, which is a large handbag that plays different sounds each time it unzipped.
Sarah Cook
Hi,
Thank you for your comments. As curator of the exhibition I can assure you that Kelly Dobson’s pieces do work, they are just quite particular in how they work. As voice responsive pieces, they are programmed and attuned to the pitch of her voice most accurately, but continuous humming and high pitched growling will activate them. All of Hans Christoph Steiner’s pieces are running open source software on old hardware (ipods and pdas) which have to be continuously plugged in because the batteries don’t hold a charge, but all can be very easily reset in the event of a crash and indeed the staff at Eyebeam have instructions to do so. Please feel free to ask the staff at Eyebeam for their help next time. Did you have a chance to listen to the audioguide?
Sarah
Oct 04, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
Caroline
Thanks for responding to my comments so quickly, Sarah. I didn’t get a chance to listen to the audio guide since I was with a few people, and it felt a little anti-social to do so. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go back by myself and give it a listen.
Oct 09, 2008 @ 9:23 am